


you're a king and i'm a lion heart

by wyoheartsmusic



Series: SKAM Fic Week [5]
Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Boys In Love, Fluff, Hector the lion!, M/M, SKAM Fic Week, Work Colleagues, about penises i'm sorry, and nothing else, featuring adorable magnus and smitten julian, he's raising a cub actually, magnus is obsessed with lions, my boys deserve to be happy okay, ridiculous fluff, shameless wikipedia lion facts, they're working in a zoo, wow look at me coming up with all those tags that no one will ever search for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 07:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11846502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyoheartsmusic/pseuds/wyoheartsmusic
Summary: Magnus is raising a lion cub that earns him an admirer.





	you're a king and i'm a lion heart

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5 of SKAM Fic Week: work colleagues  
> A little late... but better late than never, right?  
> Staying true to the rest of the week (except for Evak day) here's another not so well-known ship. Both Magnus and Julian just deserve to be happy so why not with each other?  
> So yeah... that's why I wrote this ridiculous thing.
> 
> Also shout out to Mikki aka Skamzombie, who made me laugh so hard when we wrote Day 2 together because she put the lion king line in her part of the fic and I already had the idea for today and yeah. Thanks in general for making me laugh so much, love you angel <3
> 
> I'd also like to bring your attention to this absolutely adorable video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fykC8TRtknQ
> 
> The song I used for the title is King & Lion Heart by Of Monsters & Men
> 
> Aaaanyway, I hope you enjoy this ridiculousness!
> 
> All the love <3

It’s Pink Floyd’s fault. Or maybe he should rather say that it’s _thanks to_ Pink Floyd.

Julian hovers by his locker in the break room, stealthily listening in to the conversation two of his colleagues have across the room. It’s not his fault that he feels the need to eavesdrop, okay?

Because here’s the thing: it’s just his fucking luck that when he was back in school, he’d have this ridiculous, _ridiculous_ , crush on Isak Valtersen, resident straight fuckboy who turned out gay after all — and was promptly swept away by the cool, mysterious new dude — leaving Julian behind in the dirt. And Julian tried _everything_ to at least become friends with him and his squad but there just was no chance. So Julian resigned himself to the fact that he had wasted a fuckton of time on a boy that would never give him the time of day but he would start uni and that would just give him new opportunities to not be miserable all the time.

That plan was so far so good.

Except.

Somehow, because fate seems to really like to fuck with Julian, he can’t escape Isak Valtersen and his fucking squad.

Julian needed to earn some money on the side so he ended up applying for a job at the zoo. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one with that idea. Because now he runs into the squad he so badly wanted to be a part of every day.

Just his fucking luck.

He’s long over his crush on Isak but it’s still frustrating that even though they’re work colleagues now, he still doesn’t talk to them. Or they don’t talk to him. Whatever.

It’s like a curse.

So can you really blame him for listening in on their conversation now? (And anyway, they talk so loud that he can’t really _not_ listen.)

Isak slams his locker shut and sighs in exasperation. “Mags,” He groans, clearly done with his friend, “You can’t _do_ that.”

“Why not?” Magnus pouts and it’s a little bit endearing.

Julian can practically hear Isak roll his eyes. “Because! Mags, are you seriously telling me you want to sleep in a lion’s den?”

Julian tries hard not to snort. It does sound a little bit like a stupid idea.

“Isak! It’s not the den. Really, you should know better than that! Hector is isolated from everyone, what if he feels lonely? His mother doesn’t _want_ him! _No one_ wants him!” Magnus exclaims passionately and Julian’s heart melts.

A couple of days ago, one of their lionesses, Pink Floyd, gave birth to a cub but unfortunately, she abandoned him soon after. The zoo keeper who’s responsible for the care of the lions — and took Magnus under her wing soon after he started working in the zoo because he has an incredible interest in lions — tried to get the other lioness to take care of Hector but all attempts were futile.

Apparently, Magnus now wants to take over the role of the mother.

Isak heaves another sigh. “It’s a lion!”

“So? I just want to make sure he has a happy childhood!”

Julian can’t help it. He’s endlessly endeared by Magnus’ dedication. He surprises himself when he chimes in, “I think it’s a good idea.”

The two boys look up at him as if just now realising he’s there — story of his life — and while Isak proceeds to knock his head against his locker, Magnus’ face lights up and it’s absolutely worth it. “See?” Magnus nudges Isak, “Julian gets me!”

It takes Julian a moment to process that _Magnus knows his name_ and he feels a little bit pathetic how excited that makes him. Apparently, he’s not over wanting to be their friend.

“I give up,” Isak exclaims, throwing his hands in the air dramatically before he leaves the room.

Julian expects Magnus to follow right after but instead, he walks up to Julian and claps him on the shoulder, “Thanks, bro!”

_Bro_. If Julian so desperately wants to be a part of their squad, why doesn’t it feel as exciting to be called that? He manages a weak smile. “No problem.” When Magnus still makes no move to leave Julian behind in the break room, Julian decides to try again. (Because apparently, he’s a pathetic loser that can’t get over the fact that he didn’t make the friends in school he would have liked to make.) “So you’re working with the lions, huh?” God, Julian is so embarrassed. He hates how awkward he sounds.

“Yes!” The excitement in Magnus’ voice is almost contagious, “Did you go to see Hector already? He’s the cutest little thing!”

Julian is helpless against the smile that breaks out on his face. “I haven’t actually. But I bet he is!”

Magnus basically bounces in place. “Do you want me to show you?” He offers, eyes big and shining.

Julian barely nods before Magnus skips ahead; he throws over his shoulder, “I’m trying to convince Laura to give me full responsibility over raising Hector. As you could hear, Isak isn’t really into the idea but it’ll help that you are!”

They hurried past families with excited children, taking longer than necessary because of their hideous uniforms (listen, beige is just _not_ Julian’s colour; really, it’s not _anyone’s_ colour) that makes visitors surround them like moths to a flame to ask where they can find certain animals — most times when it’s _right there_.

“Laura!” Magnus can’t contain his excitement so he calls for his supervisor when they’re still rather far away.

The woman looks up, her expression somewhere between fond and exasperated, but definitely more fond. “Magnus, right on time for Hector’s feeding,” She doesn’t sound surprised at all.

“Of course,” Magnus grins and then his eyes dart to Julian and his smile widens. He wraps an arm around Julian’s shoulders and sounds weirdly proud when he says, “I brought Julian! He thinks it’s a great idea to give Hector a home.”

Julian is basically a puddle on the floor. The way Magnus phrased it is just too adorable. However, Magnus is oblivious to the way Julian’s eyes are adoringly on him.

Laura raises her eyebrows, amused when she looks at Julian. “Does he now?” There’s a teasing in her voice that Julian doesn’t quite understand.

Magnus nods, grabbing Julian’s wrist and heads for the entrance of the enclosure that houses the cub. His voice is suddenly quiet when they enter as he explains, “Hector just opened his eyes yesterday. Did you know lion cubs are born blind? And he can’t yet walk properly.”

Julian is absolutely fascinated by what Magnus said and smiles down at where Magnus holds on to him. And then both of them spot little Hector almost simultaneously and it’s possible that Julian has never seen anything cuter.

Naturally, Magnus lets go of Julian and instead scoops up Hector who mewls and knocks his head against Magnus’ chin. “Hey bud,” Magnus coos, scratching the cub behind the ear. “I want to introduce you to someone…” He comes back to Julian and beams at him, “Hector, meet Julian. Julian, this is Hector.”

Never in his life has Julian imagined to lose his heart to a boy doting on a lion cub. But here he is now, unable to stop smiling and absolutely enchanted.

“Do you want to hold him?” Magnus asks, lips quirked up when he notices how hesitant Julian is.

Julian’s eyes widen. “Are you sure?” 

Instead of giving him an answer, Magnus hands over Hector, making sure that the position of Julian’s hands is right. When he’s happy with the outcome, he tells Julian, “Hector likes to snuggle… there.” He laughs when the lion nuzzles his snout against Julian’s nose. “He likes you!” Magnus cheers, nodding contentedly.

When Magnus starts walking away, Julian panics a little after all. Why would Magnus want to leave him alone with Hector? Julian never even had a pet, what if he does something wrong and the cub like… dies? “Where are you going?” The insecurity is ringing loudly in his voice.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just getting the milk so we can feed him. You’re doing great, Julian!” Magnus promises.

Julian can feel his heart thumping heavily in his chest but he can’t really worry much because Hector demands all of his attention and it’s such a pure moment that he doesn’t even realise it at first when Magnus comes back with a bottle to feed the lion cub. Julian hands Hector back to Magnus and then watches him feed him for a while before he asks, “So you’re actually planning to stay with him all the time?”

Magnus shrugs. “As long as Laura lets me, I guess. Hector doesn’t have anyone else, you know? I just want him to feel loved.” As if the lion can understand what Magnus said, he reaches up with his paw to press it against Magnus’ face.

Julian’s heart feels so full with _something_ , he’s afraid it might burst any second. “You’ll do a great job with making him feel loved,” Julian whispers fervently.

The answering smile makes Julian feel warm for several days.

 

It actually doesn’t happen often that Julian wakes up in the morning, knowing he has a long day at uni ahead of him and then several more long hours at the zoo, where he has to clean up enclosures and do other disgusting tasks that he definitely wouldn’t take on if the job weren’t so well paid. He does not enjoy smelling of piss and animals.

But he’s been off work for two days and now he finds himself _excited_ to go back for the simple fact of seeing Hector again.

Okay.

Maybe that’s a lie. Or at least not the whole truth.

There is the possibility that he can’t wait to see a certain blonde, blue-eyed boy again.

Julian hopes no one calls him out on being twenty minutes early for his shift simply so he can make a detour to the extensive lion enclosure.

Knowing that Pink Floyd has abandoned her baby makes him a little sad as he watches the pride go about their lives as if nothing is wrong: the three cubs of the other lioness are isolated from the male lions and Pink Floyd with their mother protectively by their side and the rest of the pride is lounging in the shade or prancing around.

In a different enclosure, Julian spots first Magnus and then Hector. Magnus is on his hands and knees, talking to the lion as if encouraging him to try walking around. But the little lion is still too young to make any attempts of that kind and Magnus soon gives up, falling on his back and Hector promptly crawls over to bury into his side.

A strangled noise leaves Julian’s throat at the sight.

So yeah, Julian always takes some extra time to go past the lion enclosure in the next couple of days, returning to that state where he is invisible to Magnus and the other boys but he doesn’t really mind either. Because he’d rather not set himself up for certain disappointment.

 

Soon enough, Hector — or maybe Magnus — attracted the attention of visitors. Julian realises that on his daily walk to the enclosure, surprised to find a small cluster of people surrounding it. He pushes past most of them to get a little closer. Luckily, he’s tall enough to soon catch sight of what’s so interesting. It’s—

Something.

Magnus is on all fours like so often when Julian watched him and his attempts to get Hector to walk the entirety of the week before. Except now, he has the little cub following him around on unsteady paws.

“Fy faen,” Julian mutters because this is just. Let’s just say he’s long past being hopelessly endeared.

He hears a chuckle next to him and when he looks over, he finds himself standing next to Isak. “This is ridiculous. But I’m kind of glad you encouraged him to do all of this. He’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him,” Isak admits.

Julian’s teenage self would probably have gone into cardiac arrest if Isak had talked to him. Now, though, he just feels strangely proud for having made Magnus happy. He’s still a little confused about Isak’s words so he asks, “Encouraged him? I barely said anything to him.”

“Huh,” Isak shoots him a look he can’t decipher and then looks back at Magnus, who’s currently imitating licking his hand to get Hector to do the same. “Well, you must have done _something_ because he doesn’t stop ranting about how amazing he thinks you are,” He shrugs his shoulders, “Anyway, I gotta get to work. See you later, bro.”

_Bro_. Julian wants to squeal with joy. This feels like he finally has Isak’s approval and as pathetic as it might sound, it’s all he ever wanted. His mind quickly wanders back to Magnus, though, who, apparently, doesn’t stop talking about him. A huge grin forms on Julian’s lips and he doesn’t think it will go away anytime soon.

 

Julian doesn’t get proper sleep in the next few days. He’s thinking too much. About Magnus, of course. He just wants to get to know the other boy better but he knows that he tends to come on too strong most of the time, which is why most of his relationships never worked out and possibly why Isak was never interested in him back at school.

He can’t really help it, though. When he feels, he feels and there is really nothing stopping him from being his most ridiculous, desperate self.

In the end, it’s Magnus who approaches him again. Julian got his favourite shift today, the one at the entrance where he doesn’t have to get in contact with smelly animals and their equally as smelly piss — or worse.

“Halla, Julian!” Magnus grins at him through the little window, bouncing on his feet excitedly, “We haven’t talked in a while. I thought I’d let you know that I’m trying to teach Hector how to roar today. Maybe you want to watch?”

Magnus is trying to teach a baby lion how to roar. Julian is fine. He’s completely— _not fine_. If this weird thing his heart does right now is what dying feels like, he wants to die for the rest of his life. Which _maybe_ doesn’t make a lot of sense but Magnus is beaming at him and he really can’t think clear right now. “O-okay,” Julian chokes out, “I have my break in half an hour, I can stop by the enclosure.”

If possible, Magnus’ expression lights up even more. He walks around the small box Julian is sitting in to join him inside. “That’s okay, I can wait here with you. Entertain you, or something.”

It’s a _really_ small box and Julian is hyperaware of how close Magnus is to him. It shows in the way, he messes up giving back change an unnecessary amount of times.

“Did you know,” Until now, there was mindless chatter between the two of them that Julian enjoyed way too much for how irrelevant it was, but now Magnus’ voice is all business, “That male lions’ cocks have spines that point backwards so when a lion withdraws his cock, the spines rake the walls of the female’s vagina, causing ovulation.”

The woman buying tickets looks scandalised and Julian’s head is undoubtedly red. “Enjoy your stay,” He squeaks at her before he looks at Magnus. “That’s— interesting?” His voice is still unnaturally high. Basically, he just got told everything he never wanted to know about lions.

“Right?” Magnus beams at him.

Luckily, Jonas shows up then to take over from Julian and at least Julian can get out of the proximity of Magnus.

They stroll through the zoo while Magnus goes on about how excited he is about teaching Hector to roar and if Julian thinks he will be successful?

“I think it’s amazing what else you already did for Hector so I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually managed that too,” Julian tells him diplomatically.

It’s incredible how everything suddenly seems brighter when Magnus’ hopeful eyes land on him. “You think?” Julian barely has time to nod before Magnus exclaims, “Oh! Wanna know Isak’s favourite fact about lions?”

Julian has become wary of cool lion facts already but he nods anyway.

“Both male and female lions can be homosexual!” Magnus tells him and Julian has to laugh when he spots the same woman from earlier looking absolutely horrified.

He’s also pretty sure it’s not Isak’s favourite fact and he endured Magnus’ relaying of fact similarly to the way Julian does now. It might be a wholly odd moment to ask such a question but Julian finds himself blurting it anyway. “Would you go on a date with me?”

Magnus’ eyes widen comically and he asks, “Like in a gay way?”

Julian is too high-strung to find the moment humorous. This was a stupid idea.

“No, wait. I meant— faen, Isak told me I can’t say shit like that! I have gay friends! Isak is gay! I’m not homophobic or anything,” He babbles and he sounds so nervous.

Julian closes his eyes against the disappointment for a moment. He tried so hard not to get his hopes up and now Magnus is crashing all of them in seconds. “Uh, sorry. I— yeah, there’s this thing I wanted to— I should,” Julian stutters, just wanting to get away as fast as possible.

“Wait!” Magnus calls out to him, “What about Hector? I mean. I’d really like to go on a date with you, Julian!”

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone's interested, I'd be willing to write the date for them too (I already have some ideas) :))
> 
> Story time!
> 
> We have a cute little cat called Jake that we adopted from friends in Austria a couple years back when we were there on vacation and he was only a teeny-weeny 6-week-old kitten (he was so tiny we couldn't even tell if he was a boy or a girl at first so we thought he was a girl until the doctor told us he is actually a boy). He was abandoned by his mother and one night we heard him screaming all night and in the morning it turned out he was trapped somewhere and couldn't get free. So my mum, sister and I managed to convince our dad to take Jake home, even though our dad isn't the biggest fan of too many cats and we already had another one.  
> The point I'm trying to make with this unnecessarily long rant (that probably no one is going to read) is that I named the mother cat Pink Floyd because she didn't have a name and that's what inspired the beginning of this fic.
> 
> Wow.  
> I'm sorry.


End file.
